So, Konsole shipped by default with KDE Plasma, my current Desktop Environment. While I don’t have a problem with it, I am interested in what other people are using, because there very likely is something better out there.

Specifically I’ve seen talk of Kitty and Alacritty, although I’ve also read that the dev of Kitty is allegedly kind of a jerk, so I am specifically interested in how Konsole matches up to Alacritty in your experience, but other suggestions and general terminal emulator discussion are also welcome!

  • BaumGeist
    4·
    9 months ago

    TLDR: try them out, see what you like. It’s a relatively easy switch-out, it’s not like you’re debating different web stacks.

    I used zutty for awhile. It was fine and lightweight, but broke when I switched back from the nvidia drivers to nouveau (it’s an older laptop that has no reason to milk every last bit of performance out of its gpu).

    Now I’m using Alacritty. I like that I can configure it in a .yml file instead of needing to use my mouse, I like that it’s written in Rust, I like that I got it to do transparency within minutes. I love the vi mode.

    On my daily driver I use Terminator. I like the multiplexing/tabs/panes, the infinite scrollback when needed, and the logger plugin when needed. I might see if I can get it to do transparency tomorrow.

    xterm has always treated me well too. Just a good, solid choice.

    I guess my two biggest pieces of advice re: terminal emulators are

    1. use tmux, it’s extremely convenient once you get the hang of it. It’s like any terminal-based text editor: hard to learn, but such a pleasure to use once you’ve got it down. Why waste time moving over to grab your mouse when you could just hit 2-3 keys?

    2. configure the hell out of whatever you pick. It doesn’t feel comfortable, like it’s your command line—in the same way that it’s your bed, or your chair, or your computer—until you’ve configured it. After you do, it just feels comfortable. Change the color scheme to all custom colors, change the font, change the shell, change the sounds, change the cursor blink rate, disable cursor, disable animations, disable text output, enable scrollback, enable logging, enable transparency, enable autopilot, adjust the retro encabulator, fasten your seatbelts, eat your veggies, stay in school.

    3. use transparency. There’s just something so pleasant about something more than a solid color background.